A bar shooter was "out of control" in high school, says coach

MONTCLAIR, Calif. – A second shooter's high school coach who killed 12 people in a Southern California bar on Sunday recalled being volatile and intimidating, and said repeated complaints to administrators from his school about his behavior did not motivate any discipline.

Evie Cluke coached Ian David Long as part of the athletics team at Newbury Park High School in 2007 and 2008. In an interview with The Associated Press, she stated that Long was a "time bomb" who constantly lost his temper, anger and shouted against the coaches he did not like their decisions. She said she had already witnessed the killing of another coach.

Coach Dominique Colell said Long grabbed his back and abdomen after refusing to return a cell phone. Another time, he used his hand to imitate him by shooting at him, said Colell, adding that she feared for herself whenever she was near him.

Cluke said that she had also seen Long claim to shoot Colell.

"When Dominique went back and saw that, she became pale as a ghost and it was really very scary." Said Cluke. "Just sadistic … he was out of control, screaming and screaming and his face was turning bright red and people were moving away from him."

Long, a 28-year-old former Marine machine gunner who served in Afghanistan, opened fire during the University Night at the Thousand Oaks Borderline Bar and Grill on Wednesday night. He killed 11 people and a police officer who fought back and then killed himself, the police said.

The authorities have not determined a reason.

Colell removed Long from the track team immediately after assaulting her, but she and Cluke said the boy's coach had urged her to reconsider her decision as this could jeopardize the team's decision. Long goal to join the Marines. The head coach on track, said Cluke, overruled Colell's decision to remove Long from the team and told him that she did not have that authority, while the Director, now retired, was passing her off as a single incident.

Long joined the team after being excused in front of several coaches and administrators.

Cluke said that she, Colell and her father, also track coach at the school at the time, had repeatedly pointed out Long's behavioral problems, to no avail.

"You have to do something about this kid, he needs help." Cluke said she told the administrators. "And they say," Well, he has a good heart, everything will be fine. Just talk to him. "

E-mails to various high school administrators were not immediately addressed on Sunday. Attempts made by representatives of the school and his district on the phone and in person for comments were unsuccessful Friday, while both were closed due to a massive and deadly forest fire In the region.

Cluke remembers once where her father and she sat with Long for a discussion and asked him why he wanted to be part of the army. Her answer, she said, "is burned in my soul."

"He said that he wanted to be in the Marines because he wanted to go fight in the war for our country and that he wanted to kill for our country," she said. "When you hear someone say that he wants to be part of the army because he wants to kill people on behalf of our country, it's scary." Chilled until death. "

She said it was time for school administrators across the country to take behavior problems seriously.

"It's not the army, the video games or the music that's causing it," she said. "It's the inaction of people in authority."

She stated that if other coaches and school administrators had acted as a result of complaints about Long, "he could have gotten help and 12 innocent people would not have died now".

"The alarm signals were there," she said.